Iran on the brink - Rising Workers and Threats of War A new book on Iran has recently come out, Iran on the brink,which is based on interviews with workers in Iran and which gives a unique glimpse into the struggles and aspirations of the Iranian working class. On March 6 at 6.30pm it will be launched at Housmans Bookshop in London.
War Drums in Washington or Bush’s Last stand Instead of listening to the advice of Baker and the Iraq Study Group to seek an exit strategy, Bush prefers to up the stakes, increasing the number of troops in Iraq and threatening both Syria and Iran. He is coming into conflict with the ruling class he is supposed to represent. Herein lies a potential political crisis of major proportions in the USA.
Report on the Labour House's May Day rally in Tehran With slogans such as "Employment, employment, is our obvious right; job security is our main demand" and "Unity, unity, workers, unity" Iranian workers came on the streets of Tehran on May Day. The workers from Qom were walking at the front of the rally and carried a large placard with "Temporary contracts must be revoked" and "End slavery" written on it.
Job classification system comes into effect in Iran Khodro Company On the eve of the Iranian New Year [21 March] the job classification system, one of the workers' demands in this company, was officially implemented. Its coming into effect raises the company's workers' wages by about 10 percent. We congratulate the workers of Iran Khodro on this victory.
Strike at Iran Khodro car plant in Tehran: "Going on strike is the only way to act" We received this brief report by the Workers' Action Committee (Iran) on a recent strike at the Iran Khodro car plant in Tehran. The production line in most halls came to a halt and, with the slogan "Going on strike is the only way to act", the strike took over the whole plant.
Ahmadinejad and company: Reactionaries of the world unite! The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has made several anti-Semitic statements in the recent period, the latest being a denial that the Holocaust ever took place. Why has he come out with such incredible statements? Are his threats to attack Israel real? Or do they reflect the need to divert attention away from the real problems faced by the Iranian masses?
"With the hard disk full of socialism" Roza Javan is a young Iranian activist. She discovered the ideas of Socialism, of Marxism and has never looked back since. She comes from a humble working class family, and suffers the double oppression of being both working class and a young woman. She is determined to change all this and believes that the only way out is a socialist revolution. She has taken her pseudonym Roza Javan from Rosa Luxemburg. “Javan” means young: therefore she is the “the young Rosa”.
May Day demonstration report by an activist of Workers' Action Committee (Iran) "We send our greetings to vanguard worker comrades who, with their radical intervention during the Labour House ceremony, were able to have a significant effect on the rank and file and the mass of workers." Workers' Action Committee
Iranian Workers' May Day Resolution We are publishing here the May Day resolutions of the Workers' Council for Celebrating May Day in Iran.
Student protests reveal weakness of the Iranian regime The student protests that began in Iran on June 9, have revealed how little support is left for the Islamic regime among not only the students and the workers, but also large layers of the middle classes. In spite of the harsh clampdown of the regime, it is clear that it is dieing. It is no longer a question of "if", but rather of "when" it will fall.
Iranian students take to the streets - "Death to the Taliban in Kabul and Teheran" Once again the youth of Iran is on the move. In a week of stormy demonstrations, the students of Teheran and other centres poured onto the streets in protest against the repressive policies of the regime. The crisis began on November 6, when a reactionary judge pronounced the death sentence to Hashem Aghajari, a prominent pro-reform academic, who was found guilty of blasphemy on the basis of a speech he made in the summer.
Iranian elections: Last chance for the "reformers" The Iranian elections on February 18th 2000 returned a massive majority for the so-called "reformers" around the president Mohammed Khatami in the new Majlis (Parliament). This article looks at the results of the elections and reports the growing movement of the workers.
The First Shots of the Iranian Revolution The mass demonstrations and riots in Iran are the first shots of the Iranian revolution. This article points out the importance of these events, underlines the decissive role of the workers and explains the need to link democratic demands with a socialist programme.
The Iranian Revolution The hated regime of the Shah was overthrown by a workers' revolution in Iran in 1979. This article was written by Ted Grant in that same year. We are republishing it because we believe it is essential reading for any active worker or youth who wishes to understand both how the Shah was toppled by the masses and how, unfortunately, the revolution was hijacked by the fundamentalist mullahs.
Fascism and Democratic Slogans In 1933 Trotsky dealt with the question of the relevance of democratic demands as the German working class was being crushed by the rise of Hitler. Here we publish an introduction to Trotsky’s article, Fascism and Democratic Slogans (July 1933) together with the original article. Written for an Iranian audience, it explains the need for Marxists to be in the forefront of the struggle for democratic demands, while at the same time explaining that the democratic aspirations of the masses can only be satisfied in the struggle for socialism.
